Godsmack

Faceless

Republic

What a burn! This is one of those “copy proof” CDs your not supposed to play on your computer, and you don’t get any indication of this limitation from the cover art. Fortunately, a few seconds’ work with a magic marker can fix this. While Ink 19 recommends you respect all artists’ rights, we also like to listen to heavy metal on our computers at work, and think you deserve that same right.

Okay, now to the music. Godsmack is one of those heavy metal wall-of-noise bands that can inject enough melodic content into the angry sound to make listening fun, even if none of your friends have tattoos. The sound is ponderous, a bit pretentious and driving enough to make you raise you hand in a satanic salute, even if you don’t intend to. Eleven of the tracks are in this genre. Creativity points go to “I F * * * * * * * Hate You” (asterisks courtesy of Godsmack, we don’t give a fuck about profanity). Here we “fall into a river of disillusion and apathy, where my fears come alive — I just needed to realign.” Don’t rock lyrics sound like the Chomsky-bot when stripped of the music? Track 12 is noteworthy, with the highly accurate title of “Serenity.” Yup, it’s 4:34 of all zeros — nada, nothing, total silence. It’s handy, too, as it lays right next to the band you need to black out to get your disc to play properly. Crank it up, man, and blast the windows with this really loud silence.

Faceless is loud, brutal and your mother probably won’t be able to tell it from anything else you listen to, so jump in. All I advise is you pick up a black marker at the same time. My preference? The ever-popular Sanford Expo Dry Erase marker. You can erase it later to allow access to the lame email gathering program and special Godsmack Icon, which will make your wussy Dell laptop Heavy Metalicious.

Dylan Garret chats with Dan Geller of I Am The World Trade Center about dance music, DJing, downloads, and how New York City needs to stop being so damned expensive already. All this and more, with less questions about the band’s name than you’ve come to expect. Well, okay, just one. But it’s a good one.